Reminiscing Truths ⚓

Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,  who seek him with their whole heart,  who also do no wrong  but walk in His ways!                                                                     (Psalm 119:2-3) The psalms, and mostly all of the Bible’s poetry, operate through what is called parallelism . As a literary device, parallelism draws on this idea of connection and similarity. Parallelism is when an author constructs parts of a sentence to be grammatically similar, often repeating a specific word, phrase, or idea. This repetition creates a connection between the ideas discussed. These parallel ideas also become emphasized and become more important for the reader. (Study.com, Parallelism in Poetry) Parallelism, then, is used in the Bible to compare an idea previously mentioned and paint ho...

But I'm barely breathing. Yep. Going classic The Script here. And I also should've been doing play analysis, and grades, and output checking, yadda yadda. I know. I know. I'm not in my most productive mode. But things have been toppling up so fast lately, and like the back pain I have to get a massage for at least every other week, I need to do a more in-depth processing of every "lemon" of emotions I have, or this would totally swallow me up and paralyze me to complete inaction. As the whole world knows, it was World Teachers' Day yesterday, October 5th. There was a simple program in UMAK HSU yesterday morning, where the teachers were (rather instantaneously) told to prepare a dancing/singing presentation. (And yes, I "danced", if you even call that dancing.) There were also a lot of little things that happened throughout the program--food, raffles, the PTA president subtly campaigning for her government official husband, students coming ...

I experienced waking up in the middle of the night because while I dreamed about a class activity that wasn’t in my preparation for the next day, I realized my lesson could be not enough. And so I add up on my lessons at 2 AM. I experienced going home so late from school, not because of some late-night school programs, but because of a student who wanted to sit me down and ask for a listening ear, because her parents fought and broke platters again; or because his severe anxiety attacks again; because she feels her family and everyone around her doesn’t really care whatever happens to her; because he is being taken over by depression and contemplates on cutting himself again; because his girlfriend thinks he’s too busy for her; because her boyfriend cheated on her for some new student. I experienced getting a knock in the faculty room to ask if Miss Bekah was there, and when I went out to see the student, she asks, “ Miss, busy ka po? ” And I remembered swallowing my inner cr...

Make  brewed,  black,  barako coffee and sit back as the world wonders how you did it.  get right back to work after a quick shower at 2 AM, because you can't afford an extra minute of sleep. Life is pretty tough in teaching. Especially in teaching in a public university. I'm not sure how it goes in other universities. I would like to think that somewhere out there, there is an institution that (1) has the most conducive teacher-student proportion, (2) has all their administrative concerns taken care of by an entirely different set of employees, and (3) has its curriculum and academic activities all properly ironed out all throughout the year, so that all their teachers are left with only the original tasks they are supposed to deal with--teaching a handful of kids, one or two course preps, and focusing on how to be a positive influence to the lives of these souls. But there's never a perfect school in this fallen, crooked world. Every ideal institu...

Joash Maramara Photography (2018) And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Blessed indeed,” says the Spirit, “that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!” (Revelation 14:13) August has, for the second time in a row, proven itself to be a month of grief for me. The last two weeks have subjected my entire church, and more especially the Maramaras, in deep emotional turmoil with regards to Kuya Ryan's falling ill.   Suddenly, our hands were all filled with tasks and things that we could do for this family who has done so much for us. From entertaining Ethan and Mikki throughout the two very long weeks by playing various board games. (And yes, Dix It is the best.) To setting up "camp" for everyone, to keep the insects out and to have a semi-adventurous feels despite everything. To simply just watching the kids. Or, uh, with the kids. We Youngles had our...